In 1971, Amtrak -- which combined and streamlined the operations of 18 intercity passenger railroads -- went into service.

In 1987, during a visit to West Germany, Pope John Paul II beatified Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz.

Ten years ago: On the third day of the Los Angeles riots, a visibly shaken Rodney King appeared in public to appeal for calm, asking, "Can we all get along?" President Bush delivered a nationally broadcast address in which he vowed to "use whatever force is necessary" to restore order.

Five years ago: Britons went to the polls in a national election that gave the Labor Party a resounding victory over the ruling Conservatives. John and Patsy Ramsey, the parents of slain child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey, publicly declared their innocence in the case, and asked for the public's help in finding the killer of their 6-year-old daughter.

One year ago: President Bush committed the United States to building a shield against ballistic missile attack. FBI Director Louis Freeh announced his retirement. Thomas Blanton Jr. became the second ex-Ku Klux Klansman to be convicted in the 1963 bombing of a church in Birmingham, Ala., that claimed the lives of four black girls.

Thought for Today: "If a man will begin in certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin in doubts he shall end in certainties." -- Francis Bacon, English philosopher (1561-1626).